The Associated Press has announced Donald Trump, previously the 45th president, as the winner of the 2024 United States presidential election against current Vice President Kamala Harris who ran representing the Democratic party. 

With the likes of entrepreneur and multi-billionaire Elon Musk supporting Trump’s presidential election, Trump continues to benefit the wealthy after becoming the new president-elect. According to Bloomberg, the ten richest people in the world, including billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates became even richer after Donald Trump’s election, increasing their profits by a collective $64 billion on the day that Trump became president.

The New Republic explains that the increase came from “a big day on the stock market, which rallied in the hopes that Trump [would] decrease regulations and lower taxes.” The S&P 500 — a stock market index tracking the performances of the 500 largest companies in the United States — saw a 2.5% increase, the best-ever performance following a presidential election, which was accompanied by an additional increase in the value of the U.S. dollar. 

In terms of net worth increases, Musk’s net worth went up $26.5 billion, which was contributed by a 15% increase in Tesla’s stock price in the aftermath of the election. Alongside Musk, Bezos’ net worth went up by $7.14 billion as he congratulated Trump on his “extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory” in an X (formerly Twitter) post he made after Trump was announced the president-elect. 

Although it may seem like the wealthy are uninvolved with Trump’s presidential run, billionaires like Musk were and are currently heavily involved with the beginning to Trump’s second term. As Musk has proven to be one of Trump’s biggest campaign supporters, fully endorsing him on his social media platform, ‘X,’ and during his rallies, Trump plans to appoint him in his newly developing administration. 

According to the BBC, Musk was chosen to lead the Department of Government Efficiency alongside businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, which is a planned U.S. presidential advisory commission announced by Donald Trump in preparation for his second term as the U.S. president. Trump states that his new department will focus on “[dismantling] government bureaucracy, [slashing] excess regulations, [and cutting] wasteful expenditures with [the restructure of] federal agencies.” 

Overall, Trump’s victory in the electoral college significantly impacted the stock market and increased the net worth of existing affluent individuals. Regardless of how others may see Trump as a political figure, it is important to acknowledge how he was able to influence the stock market after the result of his election.